Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm shortstop Maddi O’Connor reaches to apply a tag to Worthington’s Skyler Tosch on Thursday during a Section 2AAA first-round softball playoff game at Caswell Park in North Mankato.

NORTH MANKATO — After falling 4-0 to No. 4-seeded Worthington in a first-round game on Thursday at Caswell Park, No. 5-seeded New Ulm rebounded in a big way against No. 8-seeded Marshall and downed the Tigers 12-4 to stay alive in the Section 2AAA playoffs.

With the win in the consolation round, New Ulm will next play at 2 p.m. on Saturday against No. 6-seeded Waconia in hopes of winning its way back to a section championship game.

In the win over Marshall, Ramsey Hopp got the win in the circle in 4 1/3 innings of work. She gave up five hits and three walks for four runs while striking out six.

Emma Brudelie led New Ulm at the plate with three hits, while Calyn Glaser and Laura Bertrang each added a pair of hits.

After Marshall started up 1-0 after a first-inning RBI single from Leah Schaefer, who led the Tigers with three hits during the game, New Ulm answered in the bottom of the inning for four runs, getting two of them off of an error.

An error in the bottom of the second put New Ulm up 5-1 before Marshall scored three in the third to trail 5-4, led by RBI singles from Ashleigh Steinbach and Schaefer.

Mental mistakes hurt Marshall in the bottom of the third, however, such as failing to cover bases and indecision. The Eagles scored two runs in the inning on fielder’s choices where no outs were recorded and ended the inning with six runs total for an 11-4 lead. Glaser highlighted the inning on a two-run single to center.

New Ulm scored its final run in the fourth inning on an RBI suicide squeeze off the bat of Amber Gleisner and held on from there.

In the Eagles’ first game of the day, the bats were held relatively quiet by Trojans starter Haley Grimmius, who ended with a complete-game win and 10 strikeouts. The Eagles collected two hits against Grimmius, a double by Glaser in the fifth inning and a bunt single by Gracie Linbo in the top of the sixth.

Miranda Suess took the loss for New Ulm in 3 1/3 innings of work, giving up one earned run on three hits and three walks while fanning four.

Worthington scored a run in the first on a throwing error, a run in the fourth on an RBI single by Laci Boomgarden and two runs in the bottom of the sixth off of reliever Hopp. The two runs in the sixth came after a liner to right by Grimmius hopped over the glove of the right fielder and rolled to the wall.

Hopp ended with four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings.